Last October, Johnny Greaves said he was “not quitting anytime soon, probably two more years.” As it turned out, one more year was more than enough.

Greaves announced on Sunday at Crandon that he will retire from full-time racing at the end of the 2026 Championship Off-Road season. This makes the finale at Glen Helen his final start as a full-timer, though he didn’t explicitly rule out the occasional one-off.

“I’ve been doing this for almost 40 years, and I’m getting to that age where I had to make a decision,” Greaves explained. “The whole program is going great and strong and we still have CJ. I think it would benefit us more to focus more on him, the one truck, so we can do more testing and we can try better parts. Hopefully, we can do that.

“I’m not completely done. I’m going to come back and see my fans, but as far as full-season, I think we can call it done.”

After starting his career at the age of 12 in motocross, Greaves switched to driving buggies when he was 23. He starred in SCORE and SODA, including winning Class 1-1600 and 9 titles in 1992. In 1993, he began a factory partnership with Toyota that continues to this day, starting off by racing SR5 Class 7 trucks in SODA.

Besides starring in Pro Lite, Greaves and Jeff Kincaid’s team would dominate SODA and CORR in the late ’90s before the former made the jump to Pro 2 in 2000. He changed to Pro 4 a year later, where he has become one of the category’s most iconic veterans.

Greaves has claimed seven Pro 4 championships across CORR (2002, 2005, 2006), WSORR (2007), and TORC (2013 and 2014) along with over 100 race wins. At Crandon, he’s won the World Cup twice in 2004 and 2007 along with the Brush Run six times (2003, 2006, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018).

His winning ways declined as he got older, resulting in two winless seasons in the last three years. 2023 and 2025 also saw him miss time due to injuries. At 60 years of age, he’s the oldest driver in the Pro 4 field.

Still, no matter what, he can be proud to say that he was a race winner in his swan song season. Greaves won the Saturday race at Bark River in August, a run that even surprised him. Entering Crandon, he was fifth in points while son CJ sat second.

He was inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2024.

“Toyota’s racing history began in off-road competition, and Johnny has continued to elevate it over the last three decades,” TRD president Tyler Gibbs offered. “The Greaves family is synonymous with off-road success. Their continued winning pedigree has allowed the Toyota badge to be elevated to new heights in the off-road community.

“While Johnny will be truly missed on-track, and we look forward to continuing to work with his son, CJ, and the entire Johnny G Motorsports team in the years to come.”

Featured image credit: Toyota Racing